KDubya

Your comment seems to have a bit of animosity. I'm really trying to understand how people are making effective use of this class. I don't know if it's a class you use and you feel I'm badmouthing it or if I said something in another thread that irritated you, but I'll just focus on the reason for the thread. You said it is nice single-target. I don't see how. Because, near as I can tell, the single target damage is no better than a Paladin or Fighter with the same stats and gear, unless you're half-dead. (Might, Dex, 2-hander, etc.) Paladins can use 2-Handers, get Flames of Devotion, and can get the 2-Handed Style Talent. People dog Paladin DPS, but the only thing this class has over Paladin is Carnage and a dmg boost while the character is below 50% endurance, which I hope to not use often. Outside of Frenzy, which has its own drawbacks and limitations, I don't see any real bonuses to damage on all attacks and no real crit advantage... I only see Carnage and One Stands Alone as potential DPS advantages. So, I'm asking what I think is a reasonable question of someone who uses the class: what is it about these that makes them good DPS? Is it just the combo of Carnage and One Stands Alone? (ie weaker extra attacks directed at only very close targets, other than the primary target.) Are those abilities really good enough to make Barbarian a DPS class? I mean, Rogues would seem to be clearly superior for melee damage and many people use them with ranged weapons. So, other than RP as a Barbarian, (Which I'm sure is rewarding in a video game...) why would anyone use this class when Rogues, Ciphers, Wizards, and even Druids exist? And, I'm not just flaming the game, I'm asking what role this class is supposed to fill. it doesn't seem like good DPS. It's not a Tank. And, it certainly doesn't heal the party. I don't see much Mezz/CC, except fear, which a number of other classes have anyway. So, if it's not a Tank, DPS, Healer, or CC - what is its role? (I'm genuinely asking.) It looks like it's just a moderate damage, glass-cannon Melee character with very-short-range-AoE that really only does anything special if it's about to die or is surrounded by a ton of enemies. (And, the second thing probably contributes more than you'd like to the first.) If you make it too tanky, it's low damage. If you make it with low defense to deal damage, it'll die too easy if you don't constantly micromanage it's health - just don't heal it too much or it'll lose the bonus dmg. And, what's the payout? When it takes damage instead of your tank, it can (as long as it's below 50% Endurance) do +25% damage and AoE the few enemies close enough to it to be effected by Carnage? Can anyone that actually uses this class verify what kind of damage potential it has and what mechanics you're relying on when you use it? I'm really tryign to understand how people are using the class. Does carnage reach further with a reach weapon? Anyone that can and has the time, please explain what mechanics you're relying on. I am with you in that I just don't get barbarians. In a hard playthrough I added a barbarian merc at like level ten or eleven, named "Dirt Nap". My main was a fighter spec'd for damage and I tried to use the barbarian in a similar manner, namely on the frontline with the fighter main and Eder. With typical trash type mobs the two fighters either avoided damage via deflection and also regened during combat. The barbarian had a slower attack rate in the same armor and due to wanting a high might, dex, int, he had low deflection which got worse when he frenzied. He caused damage to a crowd but the crowd in turn hit him back and just beat him down quite frequently. Perhaps I am supposed to have the barbarian cower behind the fighters and poke things with a pike. I found the class to be entirely too fragile for my playstyle. A balanced fighter will do better single target damage while having better defense and a self regen. A melee rogue requires babysitting but really rewards you with awesome single target damage. A monk has better single target damage as well as a spammable AoE cone. In the early days bug abuse made barbarians godly but now I just don't see their purpose other than for RP reasons.

Have you tried dumping intellect instead of dex? Does the new increased base radius for auras cover the frontline with only a 3 intellect? You'd be sacrificing the coverage of your backline but everything has a cost.

My memory of the BG1 companions is tainted by the use of excellent NPC mods that greatly enhanced the characters. Also the use of SCS and SCSII has also tainted my memory of combat from BG1 and 2. The memorable ones were Imoen, Minsc, Edwin, Jaheria, Xzar, Montaron, Viconia and Shar Teel. Vanilla BG 1 and 2 were good, modded BG1 and BG2 are great. In comparison to the BG companions I find the PoE ones lacking.

In my opinion PoE is worth full price for a new release game. You'll have 100's of hours of gameplay so the cost per hour will be miniscule. It is not a console port or an interactive movie pushing social agendas My fear for PoE2 is that Poe will be successful enough for the developers to make Poe2 for consoles and then port it back for the PC.

As others have mentioned DT is better than DR for simulating armor. The DT system used lets heavy plate ignore small fast damage attacks, or at least 80% of them. While slower big hitting two handers are a real threat. Light armored foes are more threatened by the small fast attacks rather than the slower two handers. The system works well as it is. If you want to hurt heavily armored foes you need to use bigger, slower weapons. Against no or low armor dual wielded fast weapons do the most damage. Both slow and fast weapons have a purpose and are better than the other depending on the foe. A pure DR system just rewards straight up DPS, no other consideration is made except for cosmetic. I much prefer a system where each weapon type is better or worse against various foes rather than a system that is based solely on DPS for balance.

Going one handed with the other hand empty gets you +12 accuracy. Especially at the beginning the extra accuracy can be a life saver.

I think adding a class ability that changed the malus to the Ranger when the pet dies to a berserk type of buff would help a great deal. Similar to how a Paladin can take a class ability to overcome not following their Order's behaviors. If someone hurt my dog I'd be more likely to try and kick their ass rather than cry like a little bitch. Also let vicious shot affect melee as well as ranged, similar to how Swift Aim works for both ranged and melee.

Instead of vigorous defense I'd look at critical defense - you will get hit so it is better to lessen the severity. Also if you dumped intellect the duration of vigorous defense will be abysmal. If you have a high perception then interrupting blows might be a good choice, especially if you are going to use morning stars. Envenomed strike can be good if you have a high might but your lower intellect will diminish the duration greatly. The increase to the passive regen is not a bad choice either. Likewise superior deflection is ok as well. I like fighters because they will still be standing dishing out damage, lower damage but still damage, while barbs and rogues will be taking dirt naps. If your glass cannon DPS can kill everything without taking any damage then it wasn't a tough fight to begin with. Fighters excel when you go blind into an encounter and have things go bad. When your backline gets dropped a good fighter can persevere alone and carry the day instead of a reload and buff first approach with a squishier character.

In the world that PoE is set in it would not make any sense to have gender differences reflected in the stats. In PoE most of the stats have both a physical and a mental portion. Might - is also the strength of your spirit, not only your physical strength. Constitution - is both your physical health and your mental toughness to be able to "cowboy up" and get up after being knocked down Dexterity - reaction speed encompasses both physical and mental ability Perception - both physical via superior eyesight and mental for the ability to analyze your sensory inputs Intellect - your innate natural born intelligence Resolve - mental toughness All of the stats could be equally high for men, women, as well as for other races. The racial modifiers show how the extremes are better than others - the mightiest dwarf is mightier than the mightiest elf. If instead of Might we had Strength the case could be made for gender differences but that would open the developers up to a level of Social Justice that would make the limerick issue look to be minor. In "Real Life" there are definitive physiological difference between men and women, particularly in muscle mass and upper body strength. That is why all sports have separate divisions for men and women, for fairness to women. In sprinting, marathons, weight lifting, tennis, fighting, swimming or any other physical sporting competition men will win if you are using world class athletes on both sides. With regards to fighting I am not sure about fencing. It might be wholly dependent on technique and hand speed so with the modern sport of one touch that hits milliseconds before the counterstrike women might be as competitive as men. In a real duel though one would not try to hit to kill a millisecond before the counterstrike also killed you. In a hand to hand combat situation a women would lose badly. In MMA Ronda Rousey would get beat up by an equal weight and trained man. You'd never see it, as if by some fluke she won the guy would never live it down, and the more probable outcome of her getting knocked out would look badly for the sport that is trying to overcome the earlier description of it being a cage match with animals fighting each other instead of the highly trained athletes that make up the sport today. No sport wants to see a women get beaten by a man, it would send a bad message.

Why try to keep the pet alive? The best thing about the pet is that it bounces back totally fresh every fight. Try not to get it killed in the first five seconds but dying near the end of every fight is great and means you are getting the most out of the pet.

I prefer the male voices in game, the sinister sounds like Batman from the Dark Knight trilogy. When the character gets hit the female sound set sounds bad. Other than the above I'd go with whatever fits for roleplaying considerations.

The power of a damage spec'd fighter is the durability. You'll have good deflection, around 100; full plate for high DR; armored grace for faster attacks without sacrificing DR; critical defense to further reduce incoming damage; good, but not great, ranged damage for initial alpha strike; good endurance with good passive regen; also if it ever gets KO'd it can self rez. The strength of the build is that it does not need someone else to tank or to set up CC to make use of its abilities. A DW rogue will do more damage but needs someone to tank and someone to apply status effects. A rogue that gets attacked will drop quickly, a fighter will not care. Another good thing is that you'll have good dialogue options from high might, resolve and perception. Also combat that starts with a dialogue will not leave a squishy character exposed. I like roleplaying a tough character that can put out decent damage much better than a squishy glass cannon or an impotent super-tank.

A fighter will have the following advantages that no other class can get: 1.) Armored grace - reduces armor penalty by 16%. A fighter in robes will be as fast as anyone else naked. A fighter in leather will be faster than anyone else in robes. 2.) Weapon spec and mastery - together will add 25% damage to all weapons in the same weapon group. Every fighter will have the above abilities. This will deliver more damage than a ranged rogue without sneak attacks who only has the 20% hit to crit talent and deep wounds to increase ranged damage. Compared to a ranger with swift aim a fighter will fire slower but hit harder with more accuracy, or fire faster with less accuracy compared to a ranger with vicious shot. Taking the defender and wary defender will greatly enhance the already superior defensive characteristics of the fighter. Going all in for offensive would get you confident aim for a 20% graze>hit (with 35% graze it would go to 28% graze and increase of 50% damage to 7% of attacks or a 3.5% increase to average damage) plus a 20% increase to minimum damage for a total of 13.5% increase to average damage. Either approach will also apply to melee attacks. Fighters are a lot more powerful than many here give them credit for.

Using an offhand weapon in the left hand slot in order to benefit form both hands during a torment's reach is obviously a bug and an exploit. If you place the one handed weapon in your right hand you only use the right hand during a torment's reach. It is a single player game so cheat all you want but don't try and claim that this is behaving as designed or is just good tactics.

Why take turning wheels if you are going to spam torment's reach? Better to take FoA for long duration prones and knockback for situational use, or long stride for a massive movement speed buff. I'd look to take dual wield for +20% attack speed and savage attack for +20% damage before vulnerable attack.

Offensive spec'd fighters do very well with an initial ranged volley before switching to melee. They have the highest base accuracy, weapon focus, spec and mastery for +6 accuracy and +25% damage (which only fighters can get). Coastal amaumau would let you fire two volleys of heavy ranged firearms before switching to melee. Pick soldier (arquebus and arbalest), ruffian (pistol and blunderbuss), knight (crossbow) for a big hit with slow reload. Since you will fire each weapon once the reload does not matter. Going full time ranged would make the most durable backliner but would be limited to auto-attacks. Might be too boring, but would be able to hang till the end of the fight, or even beyond with the self rez ability. Wood Elf Might - 18 con - 8 dex - 20 per - 19 int - 3 res - 10 Talents/abilities - Disciplined barrage - per encounter +10 accuracy buff Weapon focus - +6 accuracy to weapon group Knight - crossbow have good interrupt and enough damage to not need penetrating shot Confident aim - graze>hit to increase damage, plus 20% minimum damage to help bypass DR Marksman - +5 accuracy for ranged Weapon spec - +15% damage Gunner - +20% reload Armored Grace - -16% armor penalty Weapon focus - +10% damage Critical Defense - crit>hit, hit> graze interrupting blows - +15% interrupt unbreakable - self rez open pick - quick switch, dual wield, two handed style, Might be boring but would be durable and a good interrupter.

Keeping 10 minimum. Pale Elf deadfire archipelago - pale elfs look cool, the elemental DR helps against friendly fire AoE and shades Might 10 - melee rogues get a lot of damage bonuses so might has a smaller effect for them. Con 10 - minimum Dex 20 - fastest attack rate Per 18 - interrupts are useful, gets dialogue options. Could swap with resolve for concentration bonus or in might for more damage. Int 10 - minimum, rogues have little use for intellect Res 10 - minimum In combat you'll have +20% from reckless, +20% savage, +45% superb for +85% damage, with sneak attack +135%, +185% with deathblows. Losing a possible additional +30% from a 20 might has less effect. +135% vs +165% is only 22% less damage, +185% vs +215% is only 16% less damage.

The difference would be how damage increases would be applied. For example: 10 damage weapon with -3 DR, with +30% might, +25% weapon spec, +20% savage attack does 10 x (1+0.3 + 0.25 + 0.20) = 17.5 damage with -3DR Against DR 15 you'd do 17.5 - (15-3) = 5.5 damage 13 damage weapon with same abilities gets 22.75 damage, against 15 DR you'd have 22.75 - 15 = 7.75 damage

What do you consider min/maxing? Lower than 8? Higher than 15? If you are using a party on normal difficulty it does not really matter what your build is. As a melee rogue your deflection will be low, as well as your endurance. You'll need someone else to get the attention of the mobs, someone else to apply status effects and then you will run around and flank and roll up the monsters. Or you can get a reach weapon and attack from behind the front ranks. The talent/abilities you want are reckless assault, savage attack, weapon focus, weapon style (dual, single, two handed), dirty fighting, deathblows, deep wounds, and possibly the DR penetrating modal for melee.

1.) Is the purpose to stop super tanks that can't be hit but also do terrible damage? If so I think it would be better to work on the AI, making monsters disengage to attack an easier or more dangerous target, and to have a ranged attack option to shoot the softer targets in the rear. 2.) Having massive penalties on going below 10 would just make builds more similar. The mechanism as is works fine. 3.) If accuracy was tied to a stat it would just make it so that everyone would max that stat, unless the effect was minimal and then it would be meaningless. The three saves are influenced by two of the six stats, this seems balanced to me. Dex is important enough by having it control action speed, having it also influence deflection would make it too important. To get better offensive stats you need to sacrifice defense and vice versa, balancing the two is the challenge of character builds. The only stat that is perhaps lacking in application is constitution. The con score should have a greater effect on endurance and health with a lesser effect from class. A wizard with high con should be comparable to a fighter with low con. Perhaps armor penalties could be increased and have con counteract the armor penalty.

[Ranger + interrupting blows + pet] = pet also gets the increased interrupt ability with their attacks [Fighter + high might + constant recovery] = larger passive endurance regen [Fighter + high might + wary defender + (two handed OR dual wield) + weapon spec & mastery] = frontline melee that tanks "good enough for long enough" while outputting accurate, consistent damage in a durable package that does not need babysitting.

In PoE all the stats are useful but some are more useful than others. In AD&D (BG, BG2, IWD) melee can dump int, wis, and cha to max str. dex and con. The scale was non linear where an 18 str was, I believe, +1/+3 while a 19 str was +4/+7. This was a massive difference. The dumped stats added no value unless there were class minimum requirements. I build fighters to be able to dish out damage while still being able to tank good enough for long enough. To achieve that I need max might, and dex, also need good resolve. To get the stats you need to dump intellect to pay for the resolve. The cost is reduced will saves and durations on any buffs (accuracy or the defense boost) or status effects (knockdown). By dumping intellect I greatly impair my ability to inflict lasting buffs or knockdowns and have to restrict my talent choices to ones without durations. PoE's system allows for great flexibility in stat distribution as everything gets you something that is good. You can max two stats and have everything else be average and do well. You can also dump a stat, incurring a penalty in one area and improving in another.

Jesus, what a horrible, unnecessary feature. Just the existence of it degrades the player immersion. I am glad that we can change the voice of custom made characters. A few of the voices really start to grate on me. When you create the character you can hear the voice but it takes being in game to realize that certain phrases will be repeated constantly.

I was fight club testing ranger builds at the tavern and discovered that interrupting blows makes a big difference in generating interrupts and that the bonus applies to your animal companion as well. With the animal companion also benefitting from interrupting blows that makes rangers with high perception and taking the interrupting blows a much better build than I was giving them credit for. It also makes bow rangers more desirable than gun rangers due to better interrupt chances and quality.

I have not kept a chanter long enough at hard to get the level 3 invocations so I can't comment on those. I have a PotD group that has a IE mod re-leveled Kana and has gotten the level 2 invocations. I agree with your analysis but I like the wurm summon more than you. My group is melee heavy so it kills slower but is more durable so I get to use invocations more frequently. The three wurms soak up attacks, can output some ranged fire damage and if your party is getting wiped can do more than a paralysis. If your group is more caster cannon then the paralysis would be better. I really like the white worms corpse explosion invocation against xaurips. By the time you get the invocation up there are enough corpses to blow and its foe only as well.